Live data from Hacker News

iPhone 4S Pre-Orders Top One Million in First 24 Hours

apple.com

71–80 of 139 posts

Re: iPhone 4S Pre-Orders Top One Million in First 24 Hours

#71
post #27
post #14

Even before this announcement, it is beyond me how anyone can argue that this is not the best smartphone on the market. It has an incredibly fast processor, fantastic camera, one of the most popular music hubs (iTunes), the largest app store and probably the most advanced AI technology in a phone. When the technorati (and, to be honest, most bloggers have been supportive of the product) diss this phone, are they actu…

I might agree, it looks like a nice phone. Possibly better than the Android competition. But the underlying issue I have with the iPhone, is the lack of freedom I get with it. I don't want to (and more or less can't) be restricted to iTunes, and feel I shouldn't have to void my warranty to use the device how I see fit.

I don't understand this "lack of freedom" (or the "androids more open" mantra). I rarely use iTunes myself, and don't feel "restricted" to it. (unless you feel that using iTunes to sync is "restrictive"... and even if that's the case, syncing is now doable via iCloud.)

I guess if you want to do hardware hacking, you'll always be voiding your warranty. I don't see how you'd have to void it to use an iPhone how you see fit.

I run whatever software I want on mine, open source stuff, stuff that's never seen the appstore... and that's without jailbreaking it.

As I understand it, on android, you'd have to jailbreak it.

If the complaint is that apple doesn't allow malware on the AppStore, I think that's a good thing. Its not like Apple only allows software Apple thinks is good on the store. (though I do wish they would be more restrictive in that regard.)

Always I see the claim that android is "open" or the assertion that the iPhone causes a "lack of freedom".... but rarely are there any specifics. This forces me to guess what you're talking about in order to argue a different point. You're now in a position to say that all of my examples were not what you were talking about... which is the rhetorical value of vague complaints.

Re: iPhone 4S Pre-Orders Top One Million in First 24 Hours

#72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But 'regular' people are loving the Galaxy S 2, I guess because of it's large and vibrant screen, and it's thinner (to hold) compared to the iPhone 4[1]. I really like the Galaxy S 2 and I wish so hard that Android was actually polished to the degree that iOS is. My iPhone bores and I love the screen on the Galaxy S, yet I know I will miss out on OS updates and being able to smoothly rotate the screen. The day androi…

> But 'regular' people are loving the Galaxy S 2 Are you sure of that? I can't imagine it's true, or there would be a hell of a lot more sales of it than there are...

The Galaxy S2 sold 10 million phones worldwide even before it went on sale in the US. It's pretty much the bestselling Android phone. So this is a pretty silly comment, although fairly typical for iPhone users who aren't up to date on Android phones.

Re: iPhone 4S Pre-Orders Top One Million in First 24 Hours

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please detail which phone you use and which apps were unintuitive. I hear complaints like this a lot, then try to replicate them on hardware I have to hand, and shockingly I am unable to do so! It's almost as if these stories are massively embellished versions of real interactions. For example. Have you actually seen how complex the home button on an iPhone is?

Just playing devils advocate here... how complex is the home button? Clicking it does one thing: takes you to the first page of the home screen. If you're already there, it takes you to Spotlight. Double clicking it pops up the multitasker.

And if you were in a folder before launching your app, it takes you back to the open folder. I never understood that part and it throws me off every time even with 1+ year of experience with it...

Re: iPhone 4S Pre-Orders Top One Million in First 24 Hours

#74
post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> are they actually suggesting someone would be better off with a Android, Blackberry or Windows 7 phone? It seems your comment is based on a flawed assumption that all these consumer devices should be evaluated in a vacuum where price, app markets, & previous corporate adoption doesn't matter. iPhones where historically really expensive devices. And price is one of the features of the device just like camera resolut…

He didn't say it was the best value on the smartphone market. He said it was (in his opinion) the best smartphone. Not sure how price qualifies as a feature considering prices may change based on time, geography, carrier choice and other factors. No matter how you look at it, a Lexus is a better car than a Honda Civic. You, as a customer, may not assign the same value to the actual features as a different customer ma…

I just see value as one of the features. Even reviewers who get the device for free will probably have an idea on what it would cost and thus have correspondingly higher expectations of it.

To continue with my stupid exampel, if I am asked to review a Lexus, I will end up reviewing it differently perhaps because I expect more. Heated seats not working well enough -- taking points off. Even in a comparison review some of this bias will leak in.

Re: iPhone 4S Pre-Orders Top One Million in First 24 Hours

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's only really a couple of points in your post that are valid, so I'll go through each point you made. 1. Phones with the same class of processor have been available for some time now. Tegra 2 is a dual core 1ghz SoC and there are 1.2 and 1.5ghz dual cores from competitors, with a quad core 1.5ghz due from Nvidia within the next few months. 2. The camera may be excellent, but previous phones have applied some ba…

You're ignoring the significant downsides to the Android ecosystem. For example, if you purchase apps, you would be better off with an iPhone. Why? Because purchasing those apps on an Android phone means that the associated cost of switching to any other platform increases by the value of those apps. That cannot be justified as a 'good thing'.

[deleted]

Re: iPhone 4S Pre-Orders Top One Million in First 24 Hours

#76
post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just playing devils advocate here... how complex is the home button? Clicking it does one thing: takes you to the first page of the home screen. If you're already there, it takes you to Spotlight. Double clicking it pops up the multitasker.

As far as I can tell, they made double click launch the multitasker, and the mystery swipe left and right in it (without even any indicators this is possible), just to hide that stuff from novice users.

I'm not sure if you meant "hide" it so that they'd never use it or hide it so they wouldn't see it before they were ready. I think the intention on Apple's part was the latter.

It isn't that hard to accidentally double-click the home button and get to the other running Apps. This is a natural effect that good UI depends on. Rather than filling the screen with a control for every possible option, you get this "hidden" functionality that users discover by mistake.

Once there, swiping left and right is an obvious thing to do, but even if you don't think about it, you again can do it by mistake.

I found the voice command functionality by mistake when I held the home button down while thinking about what I wanted to do next (And have occasionally accidentally invoked it in this way since.)

Re: iPhone 4S Pre-Orders Top One Million in First 24 Hours

#77

Up 66% percent, roughly the same rate that the entire market is growing. It's almost uncanny how the iPhone manages to maintain its near-constant share of this rapidly growing market. A visual chart of this phenomenon: http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/wp-content/uploads/2011/...

This graph is quite old now. Updated version?

2011 Q2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Smartphone_share_current.p...

Re: iPhone 4S Pre-Orders Top One Million in First 24 Hours

#78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All of those are things regular people - i.e. not hacker news readers - don't give a toss about.

But 'regular' people are loving the Galaxy S 2, I guess because of it's large and vibrant screen, and it's thinner (to hold) compared to the iPhone 4[1]. I really like the Galaxy S 2 and I wish so hard that Android was actually polished to the degree that iOS is. My iPhone bores and I love the screen on the Galaxy S, yet I know I will miss out on OS updates and being able to smoothly rotate the screen. The day androi…

> The day android is as polished as iOS is is the day I switch.

I look forward to having you in the iOS community for a long, long time then.

Re: iPhone 4S Pre-Orders Top One Million in First 24 Hours

#79
post #48
post #5

Good for Apple. I'm happy that internet 'gurus' and Wall St are proven wrong again when saying that the 4S was a disappointing product...

I'm quite disappointed (disclosure: I mainly develop iOS applications) not because of the specs, but I'm disappointed because Apple on this one appears to be even more greedy [1] than before. I don't necessarily want change for change but when you reuse components or design you are expected to lower the price a bit. I find the current release pattern very similar to the Intel Tick-Tock model [2] where the Tick would…

You're right about the Tick-Tock, but since Apple hasn't announced it as a policy, people expect every release to be a Tick.

I think you're wrong about Apple being greedy. Didn't they double the RAM? 16/32/64 for the price of 8/16/32 in the past? Also, the camera, processor and radio chips are all new from the original iPhone 4. The form factor is the same, but the antenna are a new design. And I think they are still working off the margin hit from the retina display.

Re: iPhone 4S Pre-Orders Top One Million in First 24 Hours

#80
post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But 'regular' people are loving the Galaxy S 2 Are you sure of that? I can't imagine it's true, or there would be a hell of a lot more sales of it than there are...

The Galaxy S2 sold 10 million phones worldwide even before it went on sale in the US. It's pretty much the bestselling Android phone. So this is a pretty silly comment, although fairly typical for iPhone users who aren't up to date on Android phones.

I found one article about the sales of the S2 from an "android news" site, that indicated it was selling 2-3 million a month. I'm sure it is the best selling android phone, and I say anything that sells more than a million units in a year is a "hit", but that's not a lot of sales compared to the iPhone. It certainly hasn't broken out into the mainstream like the iPhone has.
Post reply on HN